if she had only smiled before, now she fairly laughed. Then he caught
down his dagger which hung on the wall as one of the curiosities, and
felt for a moment as if she were the lion, and he would plunge it into
her; but the next moment he saw her beautiful face bending over
it. "Ah, this dagger I like! How sharp the point is! It looks as if
you might have done something with it. Tell me all about it, will you
not?" said the girl.

"If you will come here a week from to-day, I will tell you its
history," answered Gaspar; and she promised that she would surely
come.

At the appointed time she appeared--alone, now, Gaspar was glad to
see, for he did not like to have her whispering and laughing with the
other girls. However, he hoped she would not laugh now. He led her
through the museum into another room, where he had been painting a
picture of his fight with the lion.

"That is excellent!" said the girl; "that is just the thing. There
goes the dagger into the throat of the lion. How much better than a
petrified peacock, or a labelled dromedary! And you killed the lion
and painted the picture too?"

"Yes," answered Gaspar, quite gently.

"And the dagger--where did you find that?"

Gaspar told her how he had carved it of heart of oak when he was a
boy, and had changed it to steel in fighting with the magician.